Talk:Milton Hershey School

Long Edit Summary...

this is a great school go to it:)of vandalism to the previous version which was also vandalized. After that revert, the change was not noticed and beneficial edits were made. I did not know how to revert back to a good version which did not have vandalism in one way or another. For that reason, i went back and took pieces of the article that were beneficial and now the article has much more information. Please look over the history as I could have missed some beneficial information.Blah0401 08:12, 9 April 2007 (UTC)

Can it be?

Endowment: $6 Billion? Gridge 21:37, 22 May 2007 (UTC).

The first link on the page talks about funding and the 6 billion can be explained there

Blah0401 06:35, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

Actually that's true. According to a recent New York Times article, Hershey School has the highest endowment of any school in the continental U.S., exceeding that of Exeter and the prestigious schools of New England. That's why this article doesn't do it justice.Tom Cod 05:53, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:MiltonHersheySchool.gif

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BetacommandBot (talk) 17:21, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

i would like to talk with someone from the school about my grand daughter

   I need a phone number for hershey school, my grand daughter is their and i would like to speak with a staff member  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.81.34.167 (talk) 19:17, 1 October 2009 (UTC) 

Notorious Alumni?

I think Joe Stack should be mentioned. Any comments?Geo8rge (talk) 02:13, 20 June 2010 (UTC)

Added Andrew Joseph Stack III to notable alumni. If a Pirates relief pitcher from the fifties deserves note, then a suicide bomber whose Wiki article is longer than the school's itself deserves a spot. Hacbarton 11:39, 23 May 2012

undue weight to scandal

The revised section Controversies covers only about 3 or 4 of the 21 Philadelphia Inquirer articles in their special directory. (I was going to fix some of the outdated content in the above sections using another of the Inquirer's stories, but not going to now!)

If you think this section has undue weight, then move it to a separate article under its own title. The real problem is that the rest of the article is so poor.98.111.146.179 (talk) 08:38, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

wp:undue weight is essentially: "Giving due weight and avoiding giving undue weight means that articles should not give minority views as much of, or as detailed, a description as more widely held views". The scandal additions constituted half of the article. As significantly more takes place then scandals, that large of fraction is undue. One could likely add several times more on robberies and murders that have taken place at MHS. Adding such content detracts from the topic matter. Pennsylvania State University might be a good example of how to treat. Jim1138 (talk) 09:09, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

So why don't you create a separate article pending the expansion of main one?98.111.146.179 (talk) 09:33, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

The article as is invites some one to waste their time correcting outdated content. Will fix to explain situation, and copy text to this page. 98.111.146.179 (talk) 09:51, 23 August 2012 (UTC)

Text of "Controversies"

In December 2011, Milton Hershey School found itself in the midst of controversy after denying admission to an honors student based solely on the fact that he was HIV positive. In a lawsuit filed against the school on behalf of the unnamed boy, the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania claimed the school violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. School officials claimed that the boy was denied admission to protect other students. School spokeswoman Connie McNamara told ABC News that the school was worried the boy would at some time be having sex at the school. In August 2012, the school apologized to the boy and said he was welcome to attend; at the time of the apology he had not decided whether to accept or not.

The school previously had several sex scandals. In 2006, 30-year old English teacher Brianna K. Said was charged with having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male student. After she pleaded no contest to a charge of corrupting a minor, she was sentenced to two years of probation and a $500 fine. In 2007, 30-year old part-time drum instructor Michael T. Culp, 30, admitted having consensual sex with a 16-year-old Hershey School female student. According to a police report, he was driving her to her home in New Hampshire and the two stayed overnight at a Days Inn in Windsor, N.Y. Court records in New York show Culp was charged with disorderly conduct, sexual misconduct, and endangering the welfare of a child and fined $250. Both were dismissed by the school.

In 2010, the school settled the claims of five former students who said they had been sexually abused by Charles Koons 2d, who gained access to the campus because his mother was a part-time house parent. A mother of a former student had told the school and Derry Township police in 1998 that Koons had molested her son in the 1980's. A police and school investigation was started, but abandoned without explanation in April 1999. He was eventually arrested in 2008 by police in Middletown Borough but the boys involved did not have any connection to the school.

In 2011, William Charney Jr. was sentenced to seven years in prison for possession of child pornography. He was 43 and the father of two children; he and his wife were the house parents for about a dozen boys between 2001 and 2008. When he was arrested he was the school's associate director of home life for the senior division. The U.S. FBI was alerted by America Online in 2009; according to the FBI, Charney, using an alias, received an email that said "Let me know if you ever want to make it happen with one of my boys, they're always available". The school said that none of his illegal images involved Milton Hershey students and there was no evidence that he engaged in illegal activity with students.

Also in 2011, a lawsuit by a student expelled for incidents apparently unrelated to these cases revealed a controversy regarding comments made by Peter Gurt, himself a 1985 grad, when he was the school's Vice President for Residential Life (he was later appointed Chief Operating Officer ).

A letter emailed to the Board of Managers on 26 May 2005 and signed by "Concerned Employees" was included in the exhibits. It mentioned a 2004 school-sponsored vacation trip to the Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio. Four students, three boys and a girl, were caught engaging in sexual activity in the park, and this became widely known on the campus. A year later, in a speech to a group of seniors at the alumni house on the occasion of Senior Recognition night for graduating students, Gurt joked that one of the graduating boys who participated in the foursome had gotten "the best ride in Ohio". The letter stated that "Women are offended! 'You had the best ride in Ohio' is no way to describe a sexual act with a woman" and made other accusations of inappropriate behavior.

However, a 2005 graduate who witnessed the speech said that he didn't consider it disrespectful because "everyone knew what was going on" at the park and Gurt was implying that those caught were "knuckleheads. . . . We laughed hysterically about it because some of the kids involved were in our class." Boys and girls older than 13 can legally have sex in Ohio if their partner is under 18.

Nevertheless, in 2011 school spokeswoman McNamara said the Board of Managers "took this allegation very seriously and hired an outside attorney to conduct a thorough investigation of the matter." She also said that the Board of Managers received another letter "during this same time period, signed by more than 50 house parents at the Milton Hershey School who contradicted these allegations."

The Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News maintain a directory of stories www.philly.com/hershey relating to scandals at the school and the Hershey School Trust, which mostly concern financial irregularities.

After the Inquirer published a series of stories on questionable expenditures with school funds, then-Attorney General Tom Corbett launched an investigation into the Hershey charity during his successful campaign for governor in 2010. The attorney general's Charitable Trusts and Organizations Section has primary jurisdiction over charities in Pennsylvania. The matters being investigated by the attorney general include the institution's 2006 purchase of the money-losing Wren Dale course in 2006 for $12 million. The charity's own appraisal valued Wren Dale at $4 million as a golf course and $6 million as a potential site for a housing development.

In a petition filed on 8 February 2011 in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Robert Reese, the former president of the Hershey Trust Co., alleged breaches of fiduciary duty by the charity. Hershey Trust Co. is the banking subsidiary that manages the charitable School Trust's funds on behalf of the Milton Hershey School. Reese had been voted off the charity's main board and filed the petition the last day that he had legal standing; once off the board, he could not have petitioned the court. He had joined the board in 2007 and was not a member when most of the illegal actions were taken.

Reese, a grandson of H.B. Reese (inventor of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups) and a former senior executive of the Hershey Company, said in his petition "certain trustees were determined that the charity would own the course" and that "there was no financial analysis done by the trustees and its officers to support the $12 million price." A board member also had an interest in the property which was not disclosed.

Although the Hershey School said it purchased the golf course in part as "buffer land" for student safety and future expansion, it opened the golf course to the public and built a $5 million restaurant/bar/clubhouse on it.

The petition describes an general atmosphere of excess on the part of the board of Hershey Trust: trustee compensation tripling since 2002, to between $100,000 and $130,000 a year for an average of five hours per week; limousine services and first-class air travel for "unexceptional circumstances"; free stays and spa treatments at the lavishly redesigned Hotel Hershey; and free rounds of golf at the golf club.

The Hershey Trust Co. board was headed by LeRoy S. Zimmerman, a former two-term attorney general, who joined it in 2002 with the support of then-Attorney General Mike Fisher. He is a state Republican "heavyweight" and a political ally of former attorney general and presently Governor Corbett. In 2009, he earned $500,000 in director fees for serving on three Hershey-related boards, including the Hershey Company and Hershey Entertainment, according to the nonprofit tax filing with the IRS.

The Hotel Hershey, owned by Hershey Entertainment as part of the charity, recently underwent a $70 million upgrade with an infinity-edge swimming pool, 10 private cottages, a year-round skating rink, and a 130-seat restaurant, "so that trustees could enjoy their stays and experiences there" according to the petition. It says the $70 million investment was opposed by managers of the for-profit subsidiary as economically unjustifiable for the hotel. A photo reprinted in the Inquirer shows Zimmerman and other trustees at the doors of the hotel, under a "Zimm's Palace" banner.

The petition asked to have Hershey trustees reimburse the charity $22 million for purchasing the Wren Dale course at an inflated price and improperly commingling funds in Hershey Trust. It also asked the court to remove directors who failed to act as proper fiduciaries.

The commingling of trust money and independent retirement account funds (IRAs) "financially and personally benefitted the trustee/officer in his compensation," even though the officer "was previously advised by counsel in 1999 this was not legally permissible," according to the petition, and led to remedial action after the trust company informed the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In April of 2011, Reese filed a brief asking the Dauphin County Orphans’ Court to withdraw the petition because his deteriorating vision "has made it physically impossible for me to undertake the reading and work required to continue the case." "Additionally, and of critical importance to me, following my discussions with the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, I am confident that the attorney general’s office will actively review the matters that I have raised in my petition."

The trust company and Milton Hershey School reiterated that they are cooperating with the review by the attorney general which began in 2010. They also issued a joint statement, saying Reese’s "decision to withdraw his petition and end this unnecessary litigation further supports our conviction that the facts demonstrate we have consistently acted with the best interests of the school in mind and in accordance with the principles of Mr. Hershey’s deed of trust."